NBA All-Star Steve Nash is famous for many impressive statistics throughout his basketball career, and many consider him one of the greatest teammates of all time. But perhaps this Hall-of-Famer’s most remarkable stat is not based on his leading offense, or his number of assists but on the number of times he high fived his teammates.

During the 2009-2010 season, the Phoenix Suns designated someone to count the number of high fives Nash gave during an average game, and the number was an astonishing 239. This is quite a lot for a game that lasts on average 210 minutes.

High fives might not seem like much, but at their root, they are a way to connect, celebrate and encourage one another and in doing so, they act as a catalyst for individual and team success. Nash was intentional about not only bringing his best, but also bringing out the best in others. And his high fives proved that.

“I believe that the measure of a person’s life is the effect they have on others.” –Steve Nash

There is something magical about working side-by-side with our colleagues. As teams start to embrace hybrid work, we have an opportunity to be more conscious and proactive about how we connect.

This doesn’t mean hybrid work is without its challenges. Hybrid work is presenting yet another set of changes among an employee base that is facing change fatigue.

But hybrid work also gives us some opportunities – opportunities to take the best from in office and virtual work and combine it into a concoction that works better than we’ve ever seen. Hybrid work gives us the chance to build and improve on our existing processes, especially those that may not have been all that great to begin with.

Onboarding is a great example of an opportunity to upgrade how and what we do to foster new relationships and establish a solid footing for our new hires.

I like how my friend who works for a large organization phrased this in a recent conversation about hybrid work, “When it comes to onboarding, let’s not pretend we were hitting this one out of the park before the pandemic.” Touché.

This is not true for every organization of course. Some companies already do an outstanding job here.

But for those who do not have a clearly entrenched system, or lack consistency in their onboarding process, this is your opportunity to establish a more deliberate approach to help new employees gain their confidence, showcase where they can shine and how we can support them.

Start with doing some critical thinking about what the new employee experience looks like in your workplace:

  • Who is responsible for mentoring new team members?
  • Are you are creating a variety of connections across the organization?
  • Are you seeking diversity in whom you engage to share perspectives?
  • Are you measuring the success of your onboarding?

In the hybrid work environment, your new team members will require even more support to successfully integrate. You can help to:

  • Arrange a series of meetings to introduce all other team members and key partners and help them get to know each other using team breakouts around meaningful questions to help all team members get to know each other better.
  • Create multiple shadowing opportunities to help them understand the unwritten rules
  • Assign mentors to explain team procedures, including team norms like when to use email vs. text/chat, virtual vs. in-person meeting timing, etc.
  • Overcommunicate – Hybrid workers, especially those new to the team, need more frequent, open, and clear communication.
  • Be visible and accessible via office hours, 1:1 meetings, group chat, etc.
  • Find early opportunities for new employees to shine.
  • Celebrate their wins to help build their confidence.
  • Establish an onboarding checklist to standardize all of the above and to share the responsibilities associated with successful onboarding across your team and wider organization.

Being more conscious about the onboarding process will not only benefit new team members – think of this as your opportunity to uplevel the employee experience for all team members.

I hope these strategies are useful in your workplace. Are there other improvements you can make using hybrid work as a catalyst? Please share with us here.